Reigning European 5000 metres and 10000m gold medallist Sonia O'Sullivan is keeping her options open on what events she will contest at the Irish Championships this weekend. O'Sullivan will travel from her London home to Dublin before deciding whether to race over 1500m or attempt to achieve the 5000m qualifying time of 15 minutes and 20 seconds for next month's European Championships in Germany. The weather will play a key part in what distances she runs at the Santry Stadium this weekend.
Although the 10,000m is her number one event at next month's European Championships in Munich, it looks like Sonia is considering dropping down to the 800m this Sunday with a possible attempt at doubling up in the 1500 later that afternoon.
Apart from O'Sullivan, two of our leading medal hopes at the Europeans are walkers Gillian O'Sullivan and Robert Heffernan who are both ranked in the top eight in the world. They will be taking part in the curtain raising events of the Irish Championships on Saturday, Gillian in the Women's 5km walk and Heffernan in the Men's 10km equivalent.
Ireland has currently 25 athletes with qualifying standards for Munich.
Filed by Shane Murray
